My year-end recap is appearing late, just as it usually did back on Open Salon. But I see this as a victory that I am even getting this up online as my blogging has largely been in deep freeze since the shuttering of Open Salon—which housed the former flagship (and much more widely read) version of this blog—in March 2015.

OS shutting down is but just one fabaroony event of many that helped make 2015 a particularly rotten, rotten year for me (and I had thought 2012 was a bad one…). Mind you, last year seemed like a less than fine one around the world as well as for a high proportion of people I know, for seemingly a variety of reasons. That’s the nature of life, sometimes, so I guess I’m not an outlier in that regard. Misery and company, etc. etc.

Enough of the Deborah Downer … On the plus side, there was lots of terrific tuneage and related media to lift the spirits. And so, without further adieu, here are 15 foci from 15: the soundtrack highlights to one crappadoodles set of twelve months, starting with … Read the rest of this entry »

(Top Photo montage/doctoring by VA — original photos taken at the downtown Bank St. location of Compact Music here in Ottawa and at Chez Various: Click on photo to see full size image. Below: This and all other labels on the page doctored by VA from my personal vinyl bounty).

After a relatively-weak-year-for-albums 2013, 2014 should have been the antidote for me: seemingly almost every currently working artist that I listen to released a new album while many of my favourite legacy acts put out compilations, archive sets or deluxe reissues.

ABOUT My Life — In Concert! … *****NOTE: Blog-wide image repairs are underway (images linked over to my opensalon.com page disappeared when the site closed). Eventually all images will be restored. Thanks for your visual patience. YOURS, THE MANAGEMENT**** Greetings! I am a terminal music fan who will be writing about my life as a concertgoer from 1975 to the present. It’s about the music but also about the lives lived along with it, with each gig recollected as a whole experience rather than simply being a description of the performance: a mix of memoir, concert review, music history, and philosophical musing. I will also sometimes publish off-theme entries, both music and non-music-related. ****** I’m on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mylifeinconcert), have a work-in-progess YouTube channel, VATV (www.youtube.com/user/mylifeinconcert). Since 2010, my primary publishing platform and audience existed over on Open Salon but that online venue sadly closed in March 2015. Welcome here to all those who were following me and commenting over there. ****** Thanks to Cublet for artwork assistance.